I recently came into possession of a bottle of Widow on the same day that we were having some Tex-Mex take out. I decided that this must be fate and immediately put some of the sauce on the plate. I quickly found out that combining the level of habanero in this sauce with the cilantro in the rice was not a good idea. I find that if the sauce maker has a heavy hand on the habanero, it leaves me with a bitter aftertaste that simply cannot handle the added slight bitterness of cilantro.

So I had some experimenting ahead of me.

I had tried the sauce by itself as is my habit. It was nice and warm with an extended afterglow so that wasn’t the problem. I decided to try it with some grilled onions. We use sweet onions almost exclusively, so if you grill them to caramelize the sugars, they work really well with any peppers. Sure enough, this was perfect with Widow. The sweetness of the onions worked well with the slight bitterness and heat of the peppers. So this sauce would really work well with any of the strongly flavored meats – beef or venison spring to mind. This would especially work well when you were working with a recipe that had some sweet elements. Something like a sweet Kansas City rub for barbeque, the brown sugar and molasses would make this really pop.

I did find that this is not the sauce to use on eggs. The habaneros with the added capsaicin is simply too much for the delicate flavor of eggs or most fish.

Another point for Widow - No Survivors, the bottle notes “Extremely HOT SAUCE. Use one drop at a time.” While it isn’t that extreme, I would recommend that you do use it with restraint. The addition of unknown amounts of capsaicin does make balancing this sauce with other elements to be a delicate process. I would try this sauce in the following:

Stir fry the thinly sliced beef in a tablespoon of oil until cooked through. Remove and set aside, add another tablespoon of oil and add the vegetables. Cook them for about 10 minutes or until the carrots start to get soft. Meanwhile, mix the coconut milk and the curry paste, add Widow - No Survivors to taste (I would start with about five or six drops). Put the beef back in the pan and add the curry milk. Heat through. Serve over rice.

My next edition will feature the story of Cheryl (the long suffering wife) making hot sauce. It will be another week of aging before it is really ready.